Quick-acting slidable jaw wrench



March 28, 1950 w, ORDON 2,502,407

QUICK-ACTING SLIDABLE JAW WRENCH I Filed July 28. 1945 7 INVENTOR.

WW. BY 9 Patented Mar. 28, 1950 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE QUICK-ACTING SLIDABLE J AW WRENGH William Gordon, Union City, N. J.

Application July 28, 1945, Serial No. 607,538

1 Claim.

and shank will have a quick-acting movement in which a screw rotatably mounted in fixed position in the movable jaw is adapted, upon application of direct manual pressure, to click over the teeth of a cooperating toothed rack on the shank and thus to enable a quick closing to approximate gripping position of the wrench so as to speed up the operation of gripping or engaging a piece of work and eliminate almost all of the conventional slow screwing movement conventionally employed to move the screw to clamping position.

Still another object of my invention is to utilize a buttress thread combined with a rack having similarly-inclined interdental spaces in the rack, the parts being arranged so that only a short turning movement will be required to cause a tight frictional engagement of the piece of work, and such short turning movement will produce a simultaneous locking against normal-releasing movement of the gripping engagement, whereby a tight frictional engagement of the wrench may, if desired, be obtained that will be releasable only by a short reverse turning movement of the screw. I am thus enabled to provide a wrench having two modes of use. Thus, it may be utilized, if desired, with a loose engagement of a piece of work that is conventionally releasable by the manual movement of the teeth of the screw out of engagement with its cooperating rack and it also can be so locked that it can be released only by a short reverse movement of the screw itself and then a conventional releasing movement.

Another object of my invention is to provide a wrench construction comprising a one-piece shank member provided with a fixed jaw at one end and a toothed rack along one edge thereof, combined with a movable jaw member slidable on the shank and also composed of a single piece of material bent intermediate its ends to provide a long shank-receiving socket fitting over the shank member to produce a slidable connection therewith so that a screw carried by said movable jaw is tiltable with said jaw to engage and disengage the rack on the shank member, and to this end the said socket is inclined at its rear edgeand wider at its bottom portion than at its top portion to permit a tilting of the jaw, and aspring is arranged in the shank-socket to normally move and retain the screw in engagement with the rack while a manual tilting of the jaw against the power of the spring will move the screw out of engagement with the rack to re-.

lease the same. The screw is thus mounted in the movable jaw in secure operative engagement with the rack, and when the spring is compressed by a tilting of the jaw, complete disengagement of the screw from said rack is produced.

Another object of my invention is to utilize in a wrench of the character described, a screw provided with buttress threads and a rack having teeth similarly inclined to cooperate with the threads of the screw and permit a pawl-like clicking of the threads of the nut over the threads of the screw to a relatively loose engaging position thereof, whereupon if a tight engagement is locking of the jaw against any manual releasing movement by a tilting of the jaw and permitting such releasing only upon a short manual reverse turning movement of the screw.

With these and other objects in view, the in vention comprises the combination of members and arrangement of parts so combined as to coact and cooperate with each other in the performance of the functions and the accomplishment of the results herein contemplated, and comprises in one of its adaptations the species or preferred form illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a view in side elevation of a complete wrench embodying my invention;

Fig. 2 is a side elevation similar to Fig. 1 showing the jaw tilted against the action of the spring to release the screw from the rack;

Fig. 3 is an end elevation showing a part of the spring cavity in section;

Fig. 4 is a side elevation of the shank partly broken away with the jaw removed therefrom;

Fig. 5 is a sectional view on the line 5-5 of Fig. 6 looking in the direction of the arrows; and

Fig. 6 is a section on the line 5-6 of Fig. 5 looking in the direction of the arrows.

Referring now to these drawings, which illustrate a preferred embodiment of my invention, I indicates a shank member having a. fixed jaw 2 projecting from one edge thereof and provided at its contact edge 2 with the conventional roughening teeth 3. The said shank member I is composed of a flat strip or bar of metal and is provided at its inner longitudinal edge with a rack A composed of teeth l having a suitable inclination to cooperate and interengage with an operating screw 5 having buttress threads 5* which are preferably roughened on the Outer surface for ease in turning. The screw 5 is rotatably mounted in a movable jaw 6 and,.as.sho,wn, is rotatably mounted in a notch l formedin the jaw 8 and leading transversely to expose the rack 4 to the screw 5. In the preferred embodiment, thesaid screw 5 is mounted upon a longitudinally-disposed pin 8 arranged in fixed position betweentwo layers 6 t of said jaw 6. As illustrated, the jaw 6 is composed of a single pieceof flat material having two layers bent toward each other to provide a longitudinallydisposed shank-receiving aperture or way 9 and having the front edges of the opposite layers brought into contact to-provide a double layer portion at iii. As shown, the edge portion of the opposite layers are bent at Hi and brought together at ity as shown in Fig.- 6 and said transverse notch 'l is formed in said double-layer portion and extends to the socket 9 and the contaoting layer portions at opposite edges of the notch are adapted to clamp the opposite ends of the pin 3 for the purpose of mounting the screw 5 in said notch l, a bedding notch preferably being provided in the inner surfaces of the sides of the-jaw for the ends of said pin so as -to lock the same therein. The opposite sides ofthe jaw portion may, if desired, be heated and welded together at the contacting portion H .so as to provide a permanent strong construction. The shank-receiving aperture 9 of the. jawtis wedgeshaped in conformation so as to permit a tilt ing or a pivotal movement about an ,axisat or near the top .of said movable jaw. A spring i2 is inserted and connected within the lower end of. the shankereceiving socket or cavity ii. This sprin 2 is preferably fixedly conn ed at i uppe en W in a depression in memb s ace of the s an ca ty t which, alsop vid a finger-engaging hump on th outer surface thereof, the middle portion of the spring engages the shank and the lower end ofthe spring loose to provide the necessary resilience and preferably fits into a lower depression at ifi n. the inn rsurfac of th law.

In assembling, when the spring and nut are properly positioned in the jaw, the shank is merely slipped downwardly through the shank-receiving socket or cavity 9, whereupon the teeth of the nut 5 and the teeth' l of the rack l will be moved by the spring into interengagement.

In operation, the screw 5 carried by the movable jaw will be capable of longitudinal move ment without releasing by a mere direct rectilinear pressure to approximate gripping position, the screw duringthis-mov-ement clicking like a pawl over the rack teeth, or, if desired, the jaw may, during the closing movement of the wrench, be tilted so as to entirely release the screw teeth from engagement with the rack teeth. When, however, an approximate gripping engagement is obtained the wrench may, of course, be used in this position if a loose manipulating movement is desired. If, on the other hand, a tight gripping engagement to permit a compiete turning movement by the wrench on the nut or other piece of work is desired, the screw 5 may be turned into tightened gripping engagement, and in this engagement the wrench will clamp the objecttightly the jaw cannot be tilted to permit release by the normal releasing means but can only be released by a reverse turning movement of the screw for a quarter turn, whereupon the normal manual release by the tilting of thejaw may be accomplished to completely release. or, move the jaw away from the nut or other object which it is desired to manipulate.

This tight gripping or locking is accomplished because upon rotary movement of the screw 5 and its screw-threads, the upper surface of the screw forces the jaw upwardly, and when threads of the screw are downwardly-inclined buttress threads that cooperate with similarly inclined rack-teeth, the screw will, when the jaw is engaged with a nut or other work-piece, function as a lock-nut between teeth of the racl; and the upper edge i of the notch i to produce a frictional locking similar to that of a locknut that cannot be released by finger pressure on the back of the jaw to tilt the three. is out of engagement with the rack teeth. I s grip ping engagement can, however, be released by a very short reverse turning movement of the screw which loosens the engagement sufficiently to enable normal manual release by finger pressure to tilt the jaw and the screw threads out of engagement with the rack teeth. A uickacting loose-gripping engagement is thus provided when that type of gripping is required or desirable, and a quick-acting tight-gripping engagement may be obtained when that type of engagement is required or desirable.

Having described my invention, I claim:

A wrench comprising a shank member having a fixed jaw and provided at one edge thereof with a toothed rack, a movable jaw sl .ably mounted on said shank and provided wit wo spaced side-wall portions, a closed front portion and a closed outwardly-inclined rear-wall portion spaced from the rear edge of the shank to produce between such front, side and rear portions a loosely-fitting shank-receiving socket wedge-shaped in conformation and having at the rear thereof a wedge-shaped spring-enclos ing chamber to permit tilting movement on said shank of the said movable jaw about axes inter mediate the top and bottom thereof and also to permit a direct forward movement thereof, std movablejaw having at its forward edge a notch, a screw member mounted in said notch and provided with threads engageable within said socket with the teethof said rack, the teeth of rack fitting and cooperating with the threads of saidscrew, and a fiat spring of arcuately-arched conformation seated in said wedge shaped springenclosing chamber and having one of its ends secured to internal surface of said inclinec rear wall of said wedge-shaped so-clzet, its opposite end bearing against said internal reap-wall surface and its intermediate arcuately-arched portion abutting the rear edge of the shank to press the jaw away from said shank and to take up looseness therebetween, one end of said spring extending above the said screw and the other end extending below the same to enable, by manual pressure on the outer surface of said rear wall, a releasing operation of the screw from the threads of th rack by a combined ti1ting and forward movement of the jaw about said intermediate arcuately-arched portion of said spring as a rolling and resilient fulcrum within said wedge-shaped socket, whereby ready release by manual pressure is provided and a strong spring-pressing action of the teeth of the screw and rack into interengagement is produced.

WILLIAM GORDON.

6 REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 265,188 Tregellas Sept. 26, 1882 609,146 Hart Aug. 16, 1898 695,072 Mossberg Mar. 11, 1902 885,003 Hawkins Apr. 14, 1908 950,584 Warner Mar. 1, 1910 1,402,659 Rose Jan. 3, 1922 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 544,343 France June 21, 1922 

